Calgary Folk Festival announces schedule change on eve of event

The 2024 Calgary Folk Festival kicks off Thursday night on Prince's Island Park. (Photo: X@calgaryfolkfest)

The Calgary Folk Festival announced late Wednesday afternoon that Charlie Parr and Robert Finley won’t be performing at this year’s event.

“We are currently making small schedule adjustments,” the festival's communications team posted on X. “Be sure to check our website for the most up-to-date version.”

The popular folk festival kicks off Thursday with a 5:30 p.m. concert featuring Luna Li, Making Movies, Leif Vollebekk and Ben Howard. There’s also a concert on a second stage Thursday night featuring the Umbrella Collective, Leith Ross, BIM (Benin International Musical) and The Mariachi Ghost.

'It's about the vibe'

On CTV Morning Live Wednesday, festival artistic director Kerry Clarke spoke with CTV's Gina Martin about what festival goers can expect to discover.

"It's not really about folk music," Clarke said. "It's more about the vibe. It's all kinds of music. It's very egalitarian. It's on grass, it's in the trees. It's not on cement. It's not in big, sweaty tents You can actually get close to your favourite artists. You can dance, or chill, play frisbee or be in the beer garden.

"It's not about beards and banjos and guitars," she added, "though there are lots of guitars, there probably are some beards and some banjos, but we've (also) got funk and roots and hip-hop and blues and bluegrass and all kinds of different music.

"Folk festival is about that," she said.

For more information and updates about the festival, go here.